First off, I want to start by saying Hanukkah is not an appointed time or biblical feast. Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that remembers a very important time in Jewish history. The 5 appointed times mentioned in the Torah or the books of law (Gen-Deut) are the feasts God commanded the Israelites to observe; Pesach (Passover), Shavout (the Feast of Weeks), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). You can learn more about each of these in Leviticus 23.
So why isn’t Hanukkah an appointed time and why is it important to non-Jewish families? The simplest reason Hanukkah is not an appointed time in the Torah is because the events that are being remembered by this holy day took place after the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures was composed. By the time of the apostles, however, the tradition was already well established. So well established, in fact, Jesus himself felt it was important enough not only to celebrate it but to make a special trip to the temple.
“22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.” John 10:22-23
Now this passage does not state plainly that Jesus made a special trip to celebrate Hanukkah, however, the only times he has been seen in Jerusalem is for the three pilgrimage feast of Pesach, Shavout and Sukkot. So it is unusual for Him to be in Jerusalem at this time, normally he would be around Galilee. We know He is not there for any of the 3 pilgrimage feast because in this verse it is winter, the only feast the Jew’s celebrate in the winter is Hanukkah, which means dedication.
It is interesting to note that traditionally the descendents of David did not celebrate Hanukkah which may be why it is not widely mentioned in the bible. See, the descendents of David had issue with the priestly line of Maccabees (the Hasmoneans) because when they took back Jerusalem they put themselves on the throne. The line of Davis had issue with this and felt their kingship was invalid because of the covenant God made with David.
12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” 2 Sam 7:12-13 & 16.
Despite this and the fact that Hanukkah isn’t biblical the events it celebrates are, and obviously it was important to Jesus so it should be important to us.
But what exactly does Hanukkah celebrate? In Daniel we find the prophecies that lay the groundwork for this celebration. Chapter 2 of Daniel talks about a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had that no one but Daniel could interpret.
“27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dreams, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these:” “31 “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.” Daniel 2:26-28, 31-33
In Daniel 2:38-40 Daniel explains that the image represents four empires; Babylon is the head of gold, the Persian empire is the chest and arms of silver, the Greek empire is the thighs of bronze and the Roman empire is the legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. The Roman Empire is pictured with 10 toes which represent the ten 10 emperors of Rome. So the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw began with the destroyer of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar, represented four empires spanning nearly 700 years, and ended with the 10th Emperor of Rome, Titus. Titus was the general who destroyed the temple in 70 CE. In the end the image was crushed by a rock that is understood to be the Kingdom of heaven, which proceeds to fill the whole earth. So this dream prophecies Babylon being concurred by the Medo-Persian Empire which is then concurred by the Greeks who are in turn concurred by Rome, but in the end it is the Kingdom of Heaven that prevails all this. If we take a look at history we can see that this did indeed happen exactly like the dream foretold.
Now, I can hear the moaning and you thinking ok thanks for the history lesion but what does this have to do with Hanukkah? Well prophecy and visions are meant to be vague and it often takes understanding one to understand another so in order to understand what this has to do with Hanukkah we have to look at a vision Daniel himself had in chapter 8 that foretells the exact events of the Hanukkah revolution.
“1 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me.” Daniel 8:1
Now Belshazzar was the last King of the Babylon Empire before it was toppled by the Medes and Persians. So this dream took place in the 5th decade of the 5th century BCE, some 36 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
“2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal 3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. 4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great.” Daniel 8:2-4
Later in the chapter Gabriel explains the ram is the Medo-Persian Empire who’s capital was Susa. The long horn represents the Persian’s who were more powerful than the Medes. As Daniel’s vision continues we see another Empire represented by a goat that tramples the ram.
“5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. 7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power. 8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.” Daniel 8:5-8
We learn from history that the goat represents the Greek Empire that swept across the Middle East and toppled the Persian Empire. The single horn represents Alexander the Great who became very ill at the height of his power. Fearing he would die with no heir he divided the Empire among his four best generals. These four generals are the four prominent horns that grew in the place of the single horn that broke off. If we read further we see that one of the four horns produced a small horn that quickly grew and took over the “army of the Lord”.
“9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. 10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. Daniel 8:9-10
Again, history tells us the little horn that became great was Antiochus Epiphanies. Because of its geographic location, Israel often fell victim to political upheavals and war was never far from the land. Not to mention all the times they turned from God and He used these neighboring powers to punish them.
The events of the Hanukkah revolution happened during one of these turbulent periods. After the disintegration of Alexander the Great’s Grecian Empire the Roman Empire rose to power. Around 200 BCE the Seleucid dynasty gained control of Israel and in 175 BCE Antiochus IV inherited the throne, asserted he was divine and declared himself Epiphanes. In 169 BCE we see the fulfillment of another prophecy from Daniel.
“29″At the appointed time he will return and come into the South, but this last time it will not turn out the way it did before. 30″For ships of Kittim will come against him; therefore he will be disheartened and will return and become enraged at the holy covenant and take action; so he will come back and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. 31″Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice And they will set up the abomination of desolation. Daniel 11:29-31 NASB
The “he “in these verses refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, his army suffered a humiliating defeat when Roman ships (ships of Kittim) opposed him. His response to this defeat was to turn his army back North through Israel. When he got to Jerusalem he took out his anger on the Israelites by sacking the city, killing thousands indiscriminately, raiding the temple and taking all the gold and silver including the altar, lamp stands (or menorah), offering table and the cups, bowls and censers. He even took the curtain the separated the holy of holies.
Unfortunately, that was just the beginning, not long after he raided the temple he issued orders requiring all nations under him, particularly the Jews, to relinquish their religion and culture and adopt the Greek culture and religion. In order to create unity in his conquests he imposed strict Hellenism, the Greek culture, language and religion were required as well as statues of him in their temples which they were to worship. This brings us back to Daniel’s vision in chapter 8.
“11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the LORD; it took away the daily sacrifice from the LORD, and his sanctuary was thrown down. 12 Because of rebellion, the LORD’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground. 13 Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled—the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the LORD’s people?” 14 He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated.”” Daniel 8:11-14
The “abomination of desolation” mentioned in Daniel 11:31 refers to the stopping of the daily sacrifices, the erecting of an image of Zeus in the temple and the monthly sacrifices of swine that were offered to this image upon the alter of the Lord. In Daniel 8:14 we see that the time frame between this “abomination of desolation” and the restoring of the temple is 2,300 evenings and mornings. So, does that mean 2,300 days? Not exactly, in this case the “holy one speaking” in verses 13-14 is referring to the korban tamid sacrifices, korban means offering and tamid means continual or regular.
“1Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Command the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be careful to present My offering, My food for My offerings by fire, of a soothing aroma to Me, at their appointed time.’3“You shall say to them, ‘This is the offering by fire which you shall offer to the LORD: two male lambs one year old without defect as a continual burnt offering every day. 4‘You shall offer the one lamb in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight;” Numbers 28:1-4
Here we see God commanding the Israelites to offer regular daily sacrifices (korban tamid) of one lamb in the morning and one lamb in the evening. With this information we can see that from the abomination of desolation to the time that the temple is restored 2,300 morning and evening sacrifices will be missed which equals 1,150 days or 3.5 years. Unfortunately, since we do not know the exact day that Antiochus stopped the sacrifices we cannot say with 100% certainty that there were 2,300 missed sacrifices over 1,150 days. However, the apocrypha book of 1st Maccabees offers us a historical record of these events. According to this history source the statue was erected on the 15th day of Kislev and the first swine sacrifice was made 10 days later on the 25th day of Kislev. It also reports that the Maccabees rededicated the temple and offered the 1st korban tamid 3 years later on the 25th day of Kislev. Now this is only 1,105 days from the statue being erected, and as I said before, since we do not know the exact day the sacrifices were stopped we cannot say for certain that there were 2,300 sacrifices missed but I would wager that there were 45 days between the edict to stop the sacrifices and the erecting of the statue, which would make 1,150 days between the last sacrifice and the first, 2,300 missed morning and evening sacrifices. To finish off the prophecy of the Hanukkah revolution lets return to Daniel 11.
32″By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. 33″Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days. 34″Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy. 35″Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.” Daniel 11:32-35 NASB
From this verse we can gather that after the abomination of desolation, he, Antiochus, will turn the unbelievers to godlessness but the true followers of God will have nothing to do with it. They will stand up against him and many will be struck down “they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days” vs. 33. But it will not be for nothing, we are told in vs. 34 that even in their death they will help their cause and it will encourage many more to join with them. We see a historical recount of this in 1 Maccabees. We are told there was a priest at that time named Mattathias who had 5 sons. When he heard what was happening in the temple he called out;
“Let everyone who is zealous for the Torah and who stands by the covenant follow after me.” 1 Maccabees 2:27
then he and his sons fled to the mountains. Soon they were joined by others that were disgusted by what was happening to the temple and their people. This small group of rebels engaged the Syrian armies in guerilla warfare. Mattathias was old and died soon after the revolt began so his oldest son, Judah took over the command and soon became known as Yehudah the Maccabee which means Judah the Hammer because of the way he and his band of freedom fighters crushed the Seleucids. Soon after the revolt began the Seleucids sent large armies to root out the freedom fighters in the mountains and bring a quick end to the revolt but Judah’s great faith in our Lord allowed God to perform a great miracle. Judah provides us with a recorded of this in the historical text of 1 Maccabees 3:16-22.
“When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon, Judah went out to meet him with a few men. But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judah: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a mighty host as this? Besides we are weak today from fasting.” But Judah said: “It is easy for many to be overcome by a few; in the sight of heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few; for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from heaven. With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us; but we are fighting for our lives and our Torah laws. He Himself will crush them before us; so do not be afraid of them.”
Now Maccabees is not scripture, thus can be fallible, but it does give us a historical reference to the events of biblical time and we have seen time and time again where men and women who have great faith in God have been used by God to deliver His people from great opposition and this appears to be one such occasion. Now this was not just one great victory and the temple was restored, no, these men fought many battles over several years and were not always victorious. But they kept their resolve and many gave their lives, they pushed forward and with great determination and even greater faith in God the weak were able to overpower the strong and take back the temple.
They were so eager to restore the temple that Judah started the process even before they had finished searching out all their enemies in Jerusalem. When they saw the condition of the temple they were greatly saddened, tore their garments and mourned for the great loss. But that only served to fuel their desire for restoration, they tore down the defiled alter and began to rebuild the temple from whatever scraps they could find. One legend states they built a lamp stand or menorah from iron bars they found in the temple. Another well-known Hanukkah legend has it that when they searched the temple after rebuilding the lamp stand or menorah they could only find enough purified, blessed olive oil to keep the menorah burning for 1 day. Because of the process required to make and bless more olive oil worthy to be burned in the temple, they would not have more for 8 days. Unwilling to disobey a commandment when they had the ability to observe it they lit the menorah anyway, fully expecting it to burn out in a day, but to everyone’s surprise the lamps did not burn out. The 1 day supply of oil lasted the full 8 days until they were able to make more. While some say this is why Hanukkah is observed for 8 days there is no historical evidence of this. Now I’m not saying it didn’t happen because God can and has done miraculous thing but, if you look at 2 Maccabees 10 we see that they chose to observe a appointed time they were not able to while they were at war, the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles was established as the dedication feast for the temple and as one of the appointed feast in Leviticus.
33 The LORD said to Moses, 34 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. 36 For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work. Leviticus 23:33-36 NIV
This feast was to have taken place in the seventh month, Tishrei, or between late September and early October. However the Maccabees did not get the temple back and ready until the 9th month, Kislev, or later November early December. But, rather than waiting the 10 months until Tishrei of the following year they decided to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles 2 months late. As we can seen in Leviticus the feast was a seven-day feast with a holy Sabbath following it making it an 8 day feast. As this feast was the traditional way of dedicating the temple, it makes perfect sense that they would do this thus making Hanukkah an eight-day festival as well.
It is interesting to note however that this is not the end. In Matthew 24 Jesus, knowing full well that the prophecy in Daniel 11 had been fulfilled through the Hanukkah revolution warns his disciples to watch for the abomination of desolation as a sign of the end times. 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.
“Tell us,”they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—“ Matthew 24:3 and 15 NIV
This to me, this shows it is going to happen again. Daniel also, gives insight into the fact that there will be another abomination when he says;
35″Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.” Daniel 11:35
If for no other reason than to be prepared and to prepare our children for this future abomination, it is important for us as followers of Christ to remember this time of desolation and make sure we are ready when this time comes. The word Hanukkah means dedication and the festival of Hanukkah is a festival of light and rededication, as such it provides a unique opportunity to the body of Messiah today. We are fighting a war every day, a war to stay focused on God and to bring glory to his Kingdom. Hanukkah offers us an opportunity to shut out all the distractions and all the things of this world that are trying to pull us away from God and focus on rededicating our lives and our families to Him. It reminds us that anything is possible through God and faith in Him. We are encouraged not only to teach this lesion to our children and arm the next generation for their fight but to take a deeper look into our own lives.
“12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
In this passage Jesus tells us he is the light of the world and Hanukkah is a time to focus on that light. It is also a time to focus on how we can, like Him, be the light of the world. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14
